‘Novel’ approach to art wins People’s Choice

READERS will doubtless remember the Sesame Street monster who liked eating boring books, but Queanbeyan resident Heidi Flaherty has taken the principle to the next step by creating a mixed media artwork, “A Novel Tree” that has taken out the People’s Choice Award in the Queanbeyan City Council Regional Art Award.

Flaherty with Queanbeyan Mayor Tim Overall

Voting for the $250 People’s Choice Award was open throughout the exhibition and Ms Flaherty said winning the award was a great compliment.

“I have been painting since I was young and wanted to try some different techniques,” she explained, “The name ‘A Novel Tree’ comes from using an old recycled novel to make the tree. It reversed the normal procedure – normally it is tree to novel, but this is novel to tree.” She added that the work had taken about one and half weeks of evenings to complete.

“A Novel Tree”

Queanbeyan Mayor, Cr Tim Overall congratulated Flaherty on the success of her piece, complimenting her in particular on her attention to detail.

The overall winner and highly commended awards for the Regional Art Award were presented at the exhibition opening in early August. Queanbeyan artist Sonja Kalenjuk’s recycled piece “RE-Chair” was the overall winner, while Braidwood artist Leah-Kate Hannaford won the highly commended with her mixed media work on canvas titled “Letters from Home.”